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Stages of Motivational Interviewing

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a client-centered counseling approach that helps patients make life-improving changes in their lives. Motivational interviewing avoids confrontation and judgment and increases the client’s awareness of potential problems caused by current behaviors. There are eight primary stages of learning how to become a practicing counselor of motivational interviewing.

  1. The Spirit of MI

    • A practitioner must understand that openness is an integral part of MI, but it cannot be forced upon a client. The counselor must suspend her authority and explore what a client can do as opposed to what he hasn’t done. A counselor practicing MI needs to understand that this practice is meant to improve the client’s perspective on life and his future experiences.

    Client-centered

    • Many counselors are used to guiding a session by themselves. MI practitioners must learn how to foster a client-centered environment. This includes facilitating an environment in which clients can explore their previous ambivalence and experiences. This includes open-ended questions, affirmations and appropriate empathic responses.

    Recognize Change and Resistance

    • The term “change talk” refers to a way the client begins to express himself that shows the MI practitioner that a positive change in behavior is forthcoming. Some forms of change talk include desire, need and commitment to change, as well as action steps taken. Understanding the difference between change talk and talk that is resistant to change is integral to understanding MI.

    Bringing Out Change Talk

    • Once the counselor has begun to identify change talk, she can now work on her ability to reinforce the talk and the positive language the client uses. This requires strategic use of active listening techniques to slowly but surely commit the client to these changes.

    Rolling with Resistance

    • It takes very specific language to reflect and respect a client’s resistance (as opposed to denying it outright) without reinforcing the language. This learning step requires learning the balance between denying the resistance and letting it simply float away (roll away).

    The Plan

    • Once the counselor has determined that the client is ready to make a change, she can begin to create the change plan. This plan must be appropriate to the client and acceptable by using incremental steps. Proper timing and the ability to negotiate fairly are also required.

    Commitment Consolidation

    • Once the plan is in place and the client has begun to make change, the MI practitioner must improve her client’s commitment to change and make these new specific positive intentions habitual.

    Mix and Match

    • There are other counseling methods which may be helpful, depending on the counselor's background and familiarity with these methods. As long as they do not completely conflict, it is possible to blend together intervention methods with motivational interviewing. Once you have mastered this step, you will be able to easily transition between MI and other styles.

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